Sex assault charges against former Chicago UberX driver raise new questions about how service screens drivers.

An UberX driver brought an intoxicated female passenger who fell asleep back to his apartment and sexually assaulted her, Cook County prosecutors said Tuesday, raising new questions about how the growing ride-sharing service screens its drivers.

Tuesday’s bail hearing for Maxime Fohounhedo, who allegedly attacked the 22-year-old woman in November, marked at least the second time this year that a former Uber driver has been accused of assaulting a female passenger in Chicago.

The popular ride-sharing service, which investors valued earlier this month at $40 billion, has found itself the target of criticism on various fronts including for its screening of drivers. In this case, the driver, who had only a temporary license in Illinois, allegedly violated Uber rules by using his wife’s Uber account to pick up passengers, the company said.

A judge on Tuesday set bail at $500,000 for Fohounhedo, who Uber officials said was removed from the service when they learned of the alleged attack. He was also barred from driving any sort of taxi while the case is in court.

“He will not be Ubering anybody,” Judge Peggy Chiampas said.

On Nov. 16, authorities said, a woman was out with friends from work when she used the UberX app on her phone to arrange a ride to her home in the West Rogers Park neighborhood. Fohounhedo, 30, arrived about 3 a.m. in a black four-door car, and the woman got in the back seat, Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Mack said. She fell asleep as Fohounhedo drove onto a highway, he said.

After exiting the highway, Fohounhedo stopped the car and asked the woman to get into the front because he was having trouble finding her address, Mack said. The woman fell asleep there, waking when Fohounhedo turned into an alley and stopped the car behind an apartment building, he said.

Fohounhedo then grabbed her left hand and placed it in his pants, Mack said. The woman pulled her hand away and fell asleep again. She awoke inside Fohounhedo’s apartment with the UberX driver sexually assaulting her on a leather couch in the living room, Mack said. The woman was able to view the inside of the apartment after Fohounhedo removed a condom and went to the bathroom, he said.

Afterward, Fohounhedo helped her out of the building and put her back in the car, telling her, “I made you happy,” Mack said.

After being dropped off at her home, the woman texted a friend and said she had been sexually assaulted, he said. When the woman woke up later that day, she called police and was taken to Swedish Covenant Hospital, where a rape kit was used to collect evidence.

GPS coordinates show the victim’s phone was in Fohounhedo’s apartment at the time of the attack and the woman was able to identify photos taken of the inside and outside of his apartment, Mack said. She also identified Fohounhedo in a lineup, he said.

According to the city of Chicago ordinance regulating ride-sharing groups like Uber, people must have a valid driver's license for at least a year before applying to become a driver. But Fohounhedo, who according to his attorney was born in the West African country of Benin and had been in Chicago for about three years, was issued a temporary Illinois visitor driver’s license in August, according to the Illinois secretary of state’s office.

Such licenses are issued to people who are in the U.S. without a Social Security number from another country and require at least five types of identification documents, according to the secretary of state’s office. Whether Fohounhedo had a valid driver’s license in another state could not be determined Tuesday.

Prosecutors and Fohounhedo’s attorney said he shared an Uber account with his wife, Sheena Lemon Fohounhedo, who had a regular driver’s license since December 2009. The account was in her name, prosecutors said, but used his photo and phone number. That account was for UberX, the low-cost line in Uber's services, which also include taxi, black-car and luxury vehicle transportation.

Sharing an account like the Fohounhedos apparently did is “expressly prohibited on the Uber platform,” Uber spokeswoman Jennifer Mullin said, adding that the company has referred the matter to police.

“In addition to a zero tolerance policy for account sharing, Uber conducts real-time audits of drivers on the platform, regularly re-checks driver photos and monitors rider feedback on an ongoing basis,” Mullin said in an emailed statement.

Mullin did not respond to a follow-up question, however, about how Uber's checks failed to catch Fohounhedo’s use of his wife’s account. Earlier this month Mullin told the Tribune the driver had been removed from service while police investigated the allegations.

Fohounhedo, of the 4400 block of North Lawndale Avenue, is charged with criminal sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse. It is the first time he has been arrested, according to an arrest report.

Ride-sharing companies like Uber have drawn mixed reviews since they first came onto the scene in spring 2013. Pitched as a hip alternative to taxi services regulated by the city, the services offer consumers the ability to call and pay for rides through smartphone apps or online, and some patrons love them. But some taxi companies objected that the services are not regulated as heavily as they are, lack proper background checks and enough insurance, and generally impede their business.

In February, the Tribune documented the failure of Uber to screen some of its drivers, after the company presented a driver with a felony burglary conviction as an example of its employees. The company severed ties with the driver, and told the Tribune then it was already revising its screening process to cast a wider net for criminal infractions.

In March, another female passenger sued Uber in Cook County Circuit Court, alleging her driver had fondled her. The driver was charged with misdemeanor battery, but those charges were later dropped, according to court records.